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What are sales operations? Benefits, roles, team structure, and planning for success
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It can be challenging for sales teams to predict what processes and solutions they’ll need to meet future customer demands and grow revenue in an ever-shifting marketplace. Building a sales operations team helps businesses gain the data analysis and insights required to make these forecasts, develop best practices, and put strategic plans into action.
In this guide, we’ll cover what sales operations is, the key benefits, and the right roles and team structure to build for better business outcomes. We’ll also discuss how to develop an effective sales operations planning strategy and measure its success.
What are sales operations?
Sales operations teams play an integral role within a fast-growing organization, using data analysis, best practices, and new technologies to streamline selling processes. improve customer support, and help account teams sell quickly and efficiently. Ultimately, the sales operations team makes sure reps stay focused on meeting their sales targets while they handle the back-end strategies and workflows.
Benefits of sales operations
The sales operations team provides insights and recommendations to help organizations:
Sales operations vs. sales enablement
Both teams work collaboratively to ensure sales reps move through the sales process faster and more efficiently. The difference is that sales operations teams develop high-level strategies and solutions. In contrast, sales enablement teams put parts of those strategies, including sales training and skills development, into action. Sales enablement also collaborates with marketing teams to develop content and resources (e.g., case studies, whitepapers, and product demos) to help sales reps close deals faster.
How to implement a sales operations strategy
Use the steps outlined below to develop a new sales operations team strategy.
1. Assess the current business state
Start by working with marketing and finance to assess the current product-market fit and potential using existing business strategies, pricing models, sales revenue targets, and competitive analysis as data points.
Be sure to work with the most accurate and timely data and insights to get a clear picture of any challenges or bottlenecks that are slowing sales growth potential or churning customers due to lack of support or services, gaps in sales training, or product limitations.
2. Establish goals and objectives
Next, create and use revenue projections and forecasting models to establish long-term goals and sales team objectives to help account reps meet targets faster and more efficiently.
Some sales ops goals and strategic objectives can be to:
Establish new sales team and customer support processes and workflows
Host quarterly and annual sales planning sessions to stay aligned and on target
Present weekly sales forecasting, insights, and quota reports to account teams and reps
Build a technology stack to streamline and automate the sales process
Develop better sales team communication and knowledge-sharing strategies
Invest in new sales team training and certification opportunities
Create new hire and new customer onboarding plans and best practices
Re-align account team responsibilities and territories based on shifting market needs
Reassess sales comp plans and set higher (or more accurate) sales quotas and targets
3. Find appropriate software
LinkedIn Sales Navigator leverages AI-powered insights to transform sales operations.
Its seamless CRM integration provides reliable, real-time data to enhance sales planning, forecasting, and lead generation. With AI-driven lead recommendations, account insights, and alerts on key changes like decision-maker updates, Sales Navigator empowers your team to focus on the most impactful opportunities.
These features, combined with CRM sync and advanced search capabilities, ensure your team stays ahead at every stage of the sales process.
4. Train sales employees
Sales ops teams must regularly train employees on their company’s latest product acquisitions, updates or features, partner programs, sales tools, and customer support processes or workflows.
Try to schedule training sessions weekly, monthly, or quarterly and make it mandatory to attend. Businesses can also record these sessions to ensure busy sales reps can access and attend these sessions on demand.
Many technology businesses even create certification programs to make sure their sales reps maintain a high level of product knowledge to serve customers better.
5. Measure success with key sales ops metrics
Finally, sales operations teams must hold themselves and sales teams accountable by establishing key metrics to measure success. These sales ops metrics might include key performance indicators (KPIs), such as regularly analyzing and reporting on:
Average monthly, quarterly, and annual revenue: Per account team or rep, depending on how teams are organized. Divide the total revenue by the total number of sales reps for a set period.
Average win rates: The percentage of closed and won deals versus the total opportunities in the sales pipeline over a certain period.
Average deal size: Average size (in dollar amounts) of current deals being managed by reps over a certain period.
Average sales cycle length: The average amount of time it takes to close and manage deals (end-to-end) over a set period.
Weighted pipeline value: Total value of potential deals in the pipeline in any given period, which sales operations can use to forecast future sales revenue.
Teams can calculate these metrics via Excel reports and/or create a dashboard in their CRM to monitor and report on sales KPIs regularly. It’s important to incentivize account teams to keep their sales data up-to-date in the CRM. Sales operations teams can assist by meeting with reps to do this as a team regularly.
How to overcome sales operations challenges
5. Measure success with key sales ops metrics
The team structure and role of sales operations employees depend on the size of the company and the business’ annual recurring revenue (APR). Below are descriptions of key roles and responsibilities to illustrate the possible career path of a sales operations professional.
Sales Operations Vice President or Director
In a large organization, the team is led by a Sales Operations Vice President or Director who is responsible for executive team leadership. They typically report to the Sales Vice President or the CEO, and own or oversee all sales operations team responsibilities, including:
Presenting sales forecasts and growth strategies to other company executives
Recommending sales team productivity and product-market fit strategies and plans
Sales team performance monitoring and compensation plan development
Designing sales territories and processes
Sales training architecture, implementation, and employee onboarding
Sales team technology and automation solution sourcing and implementation
Supporting and/or approving client deals and bids (e.g., for RFP responses)
Approving sales operations team and employee growth plans
Sales Operations Team Manager or Director
Team Managers report to the Vice President of Sales Operations. Their responsibilities include:
Managing the day-to-day work and key performance indicators (KPIs) for sales operations specialists, analysts, and representatives
Developing sales team growth and hiring strategies or plans
Preparing and presenting all sales forecasts, reports, insights, and strategies created by their team to the Sales Operations Vice President
Input into company sales growth strategies
CRM and technology solution implementation and management
Overseeing sales performance monitoring and compensation calculations
Sales Operations Specialist or Analyst
This role is for mid-level sales operations employees, who usually have three to five years of relevant work experience. They will work with team managers and junior employees (e.g., specialists or coordinators) to complete all the work for the Sales Operations Vice President. They’ll also assist sales reps in streamlining their efforts and meeting sales targets. This work includes:
Sales data modeling, forecasting, and insights using Excel, CRM, and business intelligence software
Researching and recommending sales technology solutions and best practices
Calculating and monitoring sales performance and compensation plans
Supporting sales proposal development and CRM data management
Providing input into sales processes, training, and certification plans
Several analysts may report to a more senior analyst within a large organization, who would then report to a Senior Manager or Director of Sales Operations.
Sales Operations Representative or Coordinator
In this entry-level position, most representatives or coordinators have less than two years of relevant job experience. Their roles are to:
Support analysts and senior analysts to complete data reports and insights to share with senior-level sales operations team staff
Support sales reps and analysts with proposal development and updating CRM data
Coordinate and complete sales operations team administrative tasks
In smaller organizations, some of these roles and responsibilities will be combined to account for fewer team employees.
5. Measure success with key sales ops metrics
Below is a sample org chart that illustrates the team and reporting structure of each of the sales ops roles described above.
Use the right tools to build a winning sales operations team
The role of sales operations professionals and teams is an emerging field within large sales organizations. The sales ops responsibilities outlined in this guide highlight the growing career potential for those with a knack for data modeling, providing business insights, and developing strategies to streamline and accelerate sales revenue growth.
Sales operations planning must be done in collaboration with finance, marketing, and sales teams to ensure all data used in their reports and insights are accurate and up-to-date. When sales operations reports and strategies are developed and implemented effectively, the results can boost sales efficiency and make the lead generation and customer support process smoother and more satisfactory.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides sales leaders with high-quality data to research prospective clients, grow their pipeline, and make deep connections with the right prospects when they are in-market to buy a product or service. To learn more, request a free demo or sign up for a free trial.
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